Friday, February 19, 2010

Hamilton Library's Science and Technology (SciTech) department recently recieved an important donation of Pacific art: a three- by five-foot piece of siapo mamanu (a.k.a. kapa, tapa or bark-cloth) made by Mary Pritchard. Pritchard is renowned in kapa-making circles as the person who almost single-handedly revived the art of siapo in American Samoa. The piece was donated by Joan Griffis, who purchased it from Mary Pritchard in the late 1960s. It now hangs in the SciTech department, on the right-side wall as you enter via the library's first floor Bridge Gallery. At the time of her siapo gift, Ms. Griffis also donated a small collection of 35mm slides to the library's Pacific Collection, which document the process of siapo making in American Samoa, circa 1967. To view these slides online and learn more about Ms. Griffis' time in American Samoa, click here. To learn more about Mary Pritchard, click here. For more information on siapo making, see also Mary Pritchard's book, Siapo: bark cloth art of Samoa.

Located six thousand miles west of California, the Mariana Islands include the US Territory of Guam and the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). "The Insular Empire" is a PBS documentary about the Mariana Islands' relationship with the United States, and what it means to be a colonial subject of "the greatest democracy on Earth."

Producer and director Vanessa Warheit began work on the film in 2001. The Hawai`i premiere is sponsored by the Hawai`i Council for the Humanities, the UHM Center for Pacific Islands Studies, the Hawai`i People's Fund, the UHM Department of Anthropology, AFSC Hawai`i, the UHM Marianas Club, and Pacific Islanders in Communications.

The screening is open to the public free of charge. It will be followed by a panel discussion (with the filmmaker and special guests) and refreshments.

For more information, please see the Web site at www.theinsularempire.com, or call the Center for Pacific Islands Studies, at 808-956-7700.

Monday, February 8, 2010

On February 1, 2010, Dr. Karen Peacock officially retired as Curator of Hamilton Library’s Pacific Collection and Head of the Hawaiian & Pacific Collections department. Dr. Peacock's career with the UH Library spanned more than thirty years. She began in the Pacific Collection, where she briefly worked on federal grant funding before accepting a tenure-track position with the Social Sciences & Humanities reference department. She returned to the Pacific Collection in 1980 as a Pacific specialist and, in 1987, assumed curatorship of the collection upon the retirement of R. Renée Heyum.

Raised in the islands of Micronesia, Karen did all of her graduate work at UH, where she earned a Masters of Library Science, an MA in Pacific Studies, and a PhD in History. As a member of the Center for Pacific Islands Studies (CPIS) faculty, she was one of the few librarians at UH with full membership in an academic program. She also served as adjunct faculty for the University’s Library and Information Sciences program.

Beyond her work at the University, Karen also devoted a great deal of her time and energy to supporting the work of Pacific libraries and archives, developing and maintaining strong professional and personal ties with colleagues throughout the region. In recognition of this work, in 2006 she was honored by the Pacific Islands Association of Libraries and Archives with its Lifetime Achievement Award. At the time, she was only the second person to receive the award (the first being her father, Daniel J. Peacock). She has also previously been honored with an outstanding alumni award by the UH School of Library and Information Sciences (1995), the UH-Manoa Library’s Nina D.P. Horio Excellence in Librarianship Award (2008) and the LIS program’s Dr. Sarah K. Vann Professional Service Award (2008).

We wish Karen all the best as she enters this new phase of her life, and look forward to many more years of informally tapping her wisdom, wit and encouragement as we build upon the foundation she helped to set.

This summer we will again offer a University of HawaiiARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD SCHOOLON EASTER ISLAND (Rapa Nui), 31 May to 24 June, 2010. For details, please visit our web pages.

The 6-credit field school is open to undergraduate (ANTH 381) and graduate (ANTH 668) students. No prior experience is necessary. Students will participate in survey, mapping, geophysical survey, photogrametry, museum/laboratory analyses, and training Native Rapanui high school students and community members on the island.

Applications should be made through the U.H. Study Abroad program. The application DEADLINE is 17 February 2010. For applications please visit:

About Us

The Hawaiian & Pacific Collections are located on the fifth floor of Hamilton Library, on the campus of University of Hawaii-Manoa. For general questions about either collection, contact: hawnpac@hawaii.edu This blog began publishing on Oct. 30, 2009, and is edited by Pacific specialist librarian Stu Dawrs. Contact: dawrs@hawaii.edu